Magic Statistics

Yet another quiz: What obsolete skill are you?

You are 'Latin'. Even among obsolete skills, the tongue of the ancient Romans is a real anachronism. With its profusion of different cases and conjugations, Latin is more than a language; it is a whole different way of thinking about things.

You are very classy, meaning that you value the classics. You value old things, good things which have stood the test of time. You value things which have been proven worthy and valuable, even if no one else these days sees them that way. Your life is touched by a certain 'pietas', or piety; perhaps you are even a Stoic. Nonetheless, you have a certain fascination with the grotesque and the profane. Also, the modern world rejects you like a bad transplant. Your problem is that Latin has been obsolete for a long time.

What obsolete skill are you? brought to you by Quizilla

Otherwise, it does seem about right, especially the part about "the grotesque and the profane". (Hah!) And I did take Latin in high school—eons ago.

via Rebecca Writes.

Now why would they do that?

What do Pat Boone and Bono have in common? It turns out they are both fans of the Rev. Billy Graham.

They are joined by such acts as Michael McDonald, LeAnn Rimes, Marty Stuart, DC Talk and others on "Thank You Billy Graham", a track organized by Boone that celebrates the evangelist's 87th birthday.

Net proceeds from the song and video, out November 7, benefit Mercy Corps and Samaritan's Purse for Hurricane Katrina and Global Poverty Relief.

The song, written by Boone, David Pack and Billy Dean, appears on Boone's new album, "Glory Train", which was released on his Gold Label, distributed by Sony.

via CUANAS.

Binks, the lead elf at CaNN, reports:

Word has it that +Terry Buckle of the Yukon has been elected to replace uber-liberal Inghamite & Abp. Peers-minion +Archbishop David Crawley… Deo Gratias! … developing…

If this comes to pass, Yukon's loss is BC's gain. We'll be very sorry to see him leave. Nevertheless, a certain comfort comes from the poetic (one hesitates to be so presumptuous as to say divine) justice in the fact that Bp Buckle is replacing the man who tried to put the screws to him.

The French government's internal conflicts have exacerbated the riots, which have now spread beyond Paris.

If Nicolas Sarkozy had been allowed to have his way, he could have saved France. Last Summer the outspoken minister of the Interior was France’s most popular politician with his promise to restore the law of the Republic in the various virtually self-ruling immigrant areas surrounding the major French cities.

Mr Sarkozy, unlike President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, harbours the quaint belief that the primary task of government is maintenance of public order, and had the temerity to act accordingly.

Sarkozy’s decision to send the police back to the suburbs which had been abandoned by previous governments was resented by the "youths" who now rule there. That this would lead to riots was inevitable. Sarkozy knew it, and so did Chirac, Villepin and the others. Sarkozy intended to crack down hard on the rioters. If the French government had sent in the army last week, it would have been responding to the thugs in a language they understand: force. And the riots would long have ceased.

What happened instead was that Sarkozy’s "colleagues" in government used the riots as an excuse to turn on the immigrant in their own midst. Paris is well worth a mass, King Henri IV of France once said. Bringing down Nicolas Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa is well worth a riot, King Chirac must have thought. Contrary to the normal French policy in dealing with trouble makers, the authorities decided to use a soft approach. Chirac and his designated crown prince Villepin blamed Sarkozy’s "disrespectful rhetoric" – such as calling thugs thugs – for having detonated the explosive situation in the suburbs. Dominique de Villepin stepped in and took over the task of restoring calm from Sarkozy. While the latter was told to shut up and keep a low profile, Villepin began a "dialogue" with the rioters. As a result the riots have spilled over from Paris to other French cities. Do not be surprised if this French epidemic soon crosses France’s borders into the North African areas surrounding cities in Belgium and the Netherlands.

French presidential elections are scheduled for 2007—if the authorities can ever regain order. It looks like Mr Sarkozy would be an admirable candidate.

Two days ago, I noted that the French press had begun to attack Interior Minister Sarkozy for his refusal to kow-tow to thugs. It is now apparent that the same clash between appeasement and mobilisation goes to the highest levels of the French government.

Mick Hume in the [UK] Times thinks that London's memorial service for the 7/7 bombing victims hit all the wrong notes:

To judge from this service, it [being British today] means being a nation of fearful victims. The memorial was not so much about sympathy and solidarity with the dead, injured or bereaved as about portraying all of us as vulnerable members of a community of suffering, in the hope that the nation that weeps together will keep together.

What on earth was the Archbishop of Canterbury on about, preaching that grief and pain is a powerful weapon against terrorism, as if being a victim was a virtue? And there was Sir Ian Blair, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, declaring that our one universal language is "the language of tears" — less a battle cry than an invitation to have a good cry. The whole affair smacked of helplessness and defeatism.

These people need reminding that it was the contemporary cult of the victim that helped to breed the self-righteous sense of grievance in those suicide bombers in the first place.

The best thing about the service, says Hume, was that so few people seemed interested in watching it on the big screen set up in Trafalgar Square.

via spiked: online, off-message.

The only question is: Which kind does yours do?

via alastair.adversaria.